Procrastination, for me at least (and the spouse says he's the same) comes out of fear of failure. It's not just accepting that the first draft/pass/attempt at anything will be sucky, it's the fear that when I reach a point where I'm doing well on a project, it becomes harder and harder and harder to keep working on it, because surely (says Fear-Of-Failure Brain) I can't keep up this level of quality.

So I keep telling myself, it's okay if page one sucks. It's also okay if page one is awesome but page ten sucks. It's okay if page one through ten is good, page eleven is okay, but page twelve is bleh... and so on. And it's really fucking hard.

Butt in Chair helps. To-do tools like Habitica help (at least for me). Brain trickery helps -- I'll promise yourself I'll work on the task for five minutes, and then give it five solid minutes. Five minutes is better than nothing, and more often than not, inertia will take over, and I'll work for far longer than five minutes.

Mainly, it's all about persistence and embracing the fact that it's okay to suck.

@faceless My parents used to do this. Time and again, I told them, "Do not stop by unannounced." I told them in person, I told them on the phone, I told them in emails, multiple times. They would still show up. I finally snapped and yelled at them outside the husband's and my apartment. I was told I was a terrible daughter, agreed with them that I was, then stormed back inside and closed the door.

Didn't speak to them in person again for almost a decade afterward.

By the time I got to the comic book store yesterday, most of the free comics were either gone or down to less than a handful except for the Marvel Secret War comics. Two whole stacks of that comic, untouched despite being free.

Ha.

I once played a Red Talon who'd decided that she could "safely" murder humans by entering their homes from the Umbra and using Glabro form to strangle them in their sleep. The Sept Alpha (who was also her pack alpha) found out and was furious, but only banished her from the Sept. ICly she was going to head to the nearest Talons-only Sept to teach others her way of killing humans when two of the Sept's Glass Walkers caught up with her and after some very tense roleplay in which one of the Walkers failed to persuade her that what she did was wrong (not for lack of trying), she was put down for good.

Easily one of the creepiest characters I've ever played.

Most fun death, though, was probably the lupus ahroun I had who attacked a semi that was being driven by a fomor.

Dystopian-future rather than modern, but the comic series Lazarus is set in a world where a small number of Families rule over everyone else, who are basically regulated to the status of serfs or worse. Much more grim-gritty than what folks are proposing, granted.

Link to series on Comixology

Long before the Harry Potter movies came out, or casting announced, my husband and I were reading the books, and one time he said to me, "You know who they should cast as Snape? Alan Rickman."

Procrastination, for me at least (and the spouse says he's the same) comes out of fear of failure. It's not just accepting that the first draft/pass/attempt at anything will be sucky, it's the fear that when I reach a point where I'm doing well on a project, it becomes harder and harder and harder to keep working on it, because surely (says Fear-Of-Failure Brain) I can't keep up this level of quality.

So I keep telling myself, it's okay if page one sucks. It's also okay if page one is awesome but page ten sucks. It's okay if page one through ten is good, page eleven is okay, but page twelve is bleh... and so on. And it's really fucking hard.

Butt in Chair helps. To-do tools like Habitica help (at least for me). Brain trickery helps -- I'll promise yourself I'll work on the task for five minutes, and then give it five solid minutes. Five minutes is better than nothing, and more often than not, inertia will take over, and I'll work for far longer than five minutes.

Mainly, it's all about persistence and embracing the fact that it's okay to suck.

Manga Studio 5 is still on sale for fifteen bucks. Pretty much the only thing I use for digital drawing and comic making these days.